


What Do You Mean Were-WOLVES?

by Telaryn



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), New Mutants, Teen Wolf (TV), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Amnesia, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Flirting, Banshee Lydia Martin, Confrontations, Crossover, First Day of School, Flirting, Gen, Mathematics, Mission Fic, Multiple Crossovers, Mutants, Protective Kate Bishop, Rescue Missions, Season/Series 04, Secrets, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 12:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3210035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At Cap's request, the Hawkeyes head for Beacon Hills to track down and bring home missing werewolf/New Mutant Rahne Sinclair.</p><p>...It goes about as well as you'd expect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Do You Mean Were-WOLVES?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kastron (ishilde)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Kastron+%28ishilde%29).



> As I noted previously on Twitter - it's getting so that a disturbing amount of my fic exists 'because kastron asked me to'. I wasn't planning on this, I wasn't planning on it turning into a chaptered fic...I CERTAINLY WASN'T EXPECTING TO SEE ALL THE SHIPPING POSSIBILITIES.
> 
> Eventually I will accept my fate and just write these as they come to me.

Kate Bishop knew from long experience that when she started a day off pissed things rarely got any better. A half dozen laps of the Beacon Hills High School student parking lot before she was able to grab a space for herself only served to reinforce this longstanding tradition; so in the interest of not completely blowing her assignment in the first sixty minutes she sat for a slow count of thirty after turning the engine off, listening to the muffled sounds of teenagers milling outside and trying not to focus on the nightmare her life was about to become.

 _He roped Cap into asking me._ That was the part she kept getting stuck on – sitting in Clint Barton’s crappy Brooklyn apartment while Captain Futzing America held her hands in his much larger ones and asked her to consider taking on this mission with Clint. _” Charles Xavier is a valuable ally for SHIELD and the Avengers, and he’s asked for our help in locating his missing student.”_ he’d said, looking directly into her eyes. _”We’re pretty sure where she’s disappeared to, and all the intel we have tells me you and Clint are in the best position to find her and bring her back.”_

“Like I was going to say no after a sales pitch like that,” she grumbled, grabbing her purple leather backpack and finally forcing herself to get out of the car. She’d said as much to Clint too, once Cap had left.

“I’m not just a pretty face,” had been his glib, absolutely infuriating response.

 _And…here we are,_ she thought, pausing at the top of the stairs and taking in the steady stream of teenagers going in and out of the glass doors.

“Look out!” somebody called to her left. Kate tensed, but before she could assess where the threat was coming from, something heavy barreled into her sending her stumbling into a pair of strong arms that steadied her on her feet.

“Are you okay?” the boy asked as she jerked free. It had been a while since the…incident…that had set her life on this crazy path, but Kate had found that she still didn’t like unexpected physical contact. All the people in her life that she trusted had said this was likely to always be the case. Still, her work with Clint and the Young Avengers had taught her to assess her situation quickly so when she registered a pair of brown eyes full of what looked like genuine concern and a grip that was unusually strong but grew gentle almost immediately, she managed a shaky laugh and a “I’m fine, thanks.”

“Man I’m sorry,” said the boy who’d barreled into her. “People don’t usually stop right in the middle of traffic like that.” He was gawkier than his friend – more of the classic teenage boy look to him, although with a promise of someday being his friend’s equal in looks and build.

“Like that makes a difference!” the other boy laughed. He flinched then, seeming to suddenly realize he still had his hands on Kate. “Oh wow – I’m sorry.” He dropped his hold on her – looking embarrassed. “Uh, I’m Scott.” He held out his hand.

Making sure first that her backpack was securely in place, Kate took it. “Kate. I’m, uh, new.”

“We figured that,” Scott’s spastic friend said, coming around her to stand by Scott. “I’m Stiles.” Kate nodded at the boy. “Do you need help getting to admin?” he asked, before she could say anything else. “Because I could totally…”

“We both could,” Scott offered with a shrug.

“Yeah, uh, we could both…” Stiles began, but before he could finish a dark-haired Asian girl bounded up to them.

 _This is becoming quite a party,_ Kate thought, her head starting to spin as she was introduced to “Kira”, and then the group was joined by a haughty red-haired girl who identified herself as “Lydia” and announced that _she_ would see Kate safely to the administration office. “If you boys miss one more homeroom you might as well take up permanent residence in detention.”

She strode off, clearly expecting Kate to keep pace with her. Muttering a hasty goodbye at the group, Kate dutifully jogged to catch up. “They mean well,” Lydia said as Kate fell into step with her, “but they lack focus.” She glanced at Kate, and the archer had the distinct impression that in a split second the girl had completely sized her up. “Especially around pretty girls,” she sniffed, looking ahead again.

“I’m not looking to start anything,” Kate began, completely thrown by how easily the girl had dismissed her. _Yeah, really didn’t miss any of this,_ she thought. It was the worst of the country club heiresses she’d called her “friends” growing up coupled with all the bitchiness of high school.

“Not intentionally,” Lydia said, stopping short in front of a glass-front door with the word “Administration” stenciled on it in faded gold paint, “but are you seriously going to stand there and tell me you don’t have an agenda?”

A chill shivered down Kate’s spine, and she suddenly understood why they were looking for one of Charles Xavier’s people in a back-water town like Beacon Hills.  
************************************  
Lydia knew she was being harsh, but there was no reasonable way to explain to the new girl that her very presence in these halls was too much too soon. _Allison…hunter…werewolves…_ the voices kept murmuring over and over until she wanted to scream just from pure frustration.

“So…thanks,” Kate offered. “See you around?”

Lydia nodded. “You want to talk to Ms. Breeden.”

She’d never missed Ms. Morell as much as she did now. There was no one she could talk to about Allison’s death or the guilt that had her waking up in the middle of the night unable to breathe for the pressure in her head and in her heart. Kira hadn’t really known Allison, Scott had his own burdens to bear, and Stiles…Stiles couldn’t even look at her.

It made for a lonely existence. _You’d never know that people used to fall over themselves for a chance to talk to me._

Thankfully AP Calculus was her first class of the morning. Numbers still played by the rules she’d always known – it was comforting in a way few things in Lydia’s life were these days. And she liked the fact that their new teacher was female _and_ a red-head; it made her less of an oddity.

“Good morning Lydia!” Rahne Sinclair greeted her with a bright smile and a nod, the hint of a native Scottish brogue coloring her speech. “Did you have any trouble with the homework?”

“No ma’am,” she said, setting her backpack on the edge of her teacher’s desk and sliding out the relevant papers. “Once I understood the first three the rest were easy.”

Ms. Sinclair took her assignment. “I’m glad to see everything I’ve heard about you is true. Take your seat – we have a lot to cover today.”

Lydia’s breath caught in her throat as she turned and saw that Stiles had arrived while she’d been talking to Ms. Sinclair and slipped into his seat. He glanced up briefly – obviously feeling her eyes on him – but ducked his head again.

She felt guilty as she made her way to a new desk, across the room, but every time she thought about being alone with Stiles without one of the others around to act as a buffer, it brought back memory of the night she’d spent as the nogitsune’s prisoner. _The night Allison…_ She swallowed hard, unable to finish the thought as she began setting out her books and papers.

Other students filed in as she organized her materials. They were a blur of movement and sound as Lydia fought to keep the numbers uppermost in her thoughts. _”You need an anchor as much as the wolves do.”_ It had been one of the most valuable bits of information she’d gotten from Ms. Morrell; since she was still mostly a flesh and bone human, she needed ways to ground herself to that. Math had worked the best of anything – boys weren’t interested in anything but ‘getting lucky’ as her mother was fond of saying, and girls…

 _Too soon…too soon…_ Half a dozen high, tiny voices snuck past her defenses like the whine of a small swarm of mosquitoes. Scowling, Lydia glanced up in time to see the new girl - _Kate_ \- talking to Ms. Sinclair at her desk. _We don’t want her here…_

 _You think I do?_ Lydia thought, trying her best to push awareness of the voices down.  
******************************  
 _It can’t be this easy,_ Kate thought as she introduced herself to Rahne Sinclair. Captain America had said they were reasonably sure she was in Beacon Hills, and she and Clint had agreed that enough weirdness was connected to the school for Kate to enroll, but the idea of her being a teacher in Kate’s first class on her first day strained credibility. _There has to be a catch._

One thing Kate did know was that you didn’t just call a mutant out in public for what they were. “Take a seat next to Lydia,” Rahne said pleasantly. “She’s our top student – we move fast in this class, so if you feel shaky on anything she should be able to bring you up to speed in short order.”

 _Okay, didn’t see that coming,_ Kate thought, making her way to the empty desk next to the red haired girl who’d escorted her to the administration building what already felt like a lifetime ago. Nodding absently at Lydia, she half sat-half fell into the hard wooden chair and struggled to get her stuff in some kind of order.

Her thoughts were still hopelessly scattered when Rahne called the class to order a few minutes later, and she blew the first question posed to her so badly she could feel Lydia and Stiles staring at her in amazement. _Get it together, Katie-Kate,_ she thought, barely resisting the urge to bang her head repeatedly against the surface of the desk. _They throw you out of this class it’s going to be just that much harder to convince the rogue werewolf that you’re on her side._

There was a very small, very _neglected_ part of Kate’s brain that occasionally felt the need to protest how easily she processed the idea of communicating with a “rogue werewolf” these days. Fortunately the self-same rogue werewolf saved her from having to dwell on the insanity her life had become by calling on her. Again.

The problem was easier this time, almost insultingly so, and Kate felt immediately calmer once she’d given the right answer. Ms. Sinclair turned her attention automatically to a pair of boys that had been on the verge of causing a minor uproar in the back of the classroom, but instead of being able to slump down in her chair and catch her breath Kate again felt the weight of Lydia’s gaze on her.

“What?” she hissed, rounding on the girl. The red-head didn’t even flinch.

“Just trying to figure you out,” she said. “You knew the answer to that first question – you wouldn’t have been able to answer the other one if you didn’t. It was a rookie mistake – are you trying to come off as dumber than you actually are?”

Kate buried her face in her hands and slow-counted to ten. “Lunch,” she said, turning her head to look at Lydia. “You tell me why I seem to be pissing you off just by being here and I’ll answer whatever questions of yours I can. Deal?”

Green eyes seemed to be looking through all her defenses. After a dozen heartbeats, she exhaled softly and nodded.

“Deal.”  
*********************************  
Kate wasn’t in her next class. Lydia took a deep breath and tried not to feel guilty at how relieved she was.

Scott came up on her as she was settling into her chair. “You don’t trust her? The new girl?”

Holding onto what little equilibrium she had managed to regain, Lydia said coolly, “I don’t know Kate.” Deliberately avoiding Scott’s gaze, she set her class materials out in precise order. Patterns like this were good…safe. They grounded her. Whatever larger pattern had brought Kate into her orbit was something else entirely.

The young Alpha dropped gracefully into the seat in front of her, leaning on the back of the chair. “I heard you guys talking – she’s setting off your powers, isn’t she?”

 _That_ got her attention. “I know you’re old enough to understand how shitty it is to eavesdrop,” she snapped, looking him _directly_ in the eyes this time.

It was a mark of how much Scott had changed that he didn’t flinch away from her accusation. “I’d do worse if it would help me keep you guys safe. What do you know?”

Self-conscious all at once, Lydia shrugged. “She’s got an agenda. She promised to meet me at lunch so we could swap notes – I tell her what I can, she’ll tell me what she can. All I can tell _you_ right now is that girlfriend is definitely _not_ what she pretends to be.”

“Where are you meeting her?” Scott asked. Lydia winced as the high-pitched whine started in her ears again. _Allison…hunter…werewolves…too soon…too soon…_ Whatever Kate’s story was, Lydia knew she needed to keep Scott as far away from it as possible for now.

“Let me handle this,” she said finally and firmly, when it was clear Scott wasn’t going to let it go. “When I know more I will tell you. I promise.”

For once timing worked in her favor – their history teacher called the class to order before Scott could muster up an argument. Lydia tried her best to lose herself in the ongoing discussion; they were studying the lost colony of Roanoke, and their teacher had encouraged each of them to develop their own theory about what had happened to the hundred twenty or so colonists that had vanished without word or clue as to what had happened. 

It was an engaging exercise, and she had to give Ms. Sheridan full marks for thinking of it. The theories ranged from the fascinating to the ridiculous, but as long as the student made even a token attempt at supporting their ideas they passed. For the first time since Kate had walked into her life, the low-level hum of noise that Lydia never seemed to be able to get away from finally began to quiet.

 _She hunts the lost wolf…_ The words were softly spoken, but perfectly clear in the psychic stillness. Lydia tried her best to cover her surprise, but even the little noise she made was enough to draw Scott’s attention. “Focus,” she growled softly, knowing he would be able to hear her.

 _Lost wolf…_ The phrase stuck with her through the rest of class. All the wolves in Scott’s pack were accounted for, and she hadn’t heard anyone discussing any new Omegas in town. If Kate couldn’t be convinced to be completely honest with her, they were going to have to talk to Derek – or worse, to Peter – to figure out what was up.  
****************************************  
“Looking for the cafeteria?”

Kate had absolutely lost track of how many times her startle-reflex had been tripped. This time it was the hyperactive boy… _Stiles_ , she remembered, who had been in her calculus class with Lydia. “You guys sure like sneaking up on people don’t you?” she asked, as he fell into step with her. “And yes, I am totally lost.”

Stiles laughed. “Yeah, sneaking is kind of a thing around here. You get used to it.” He slowed and gestured to their left. “Allow me to accompany you to your first encounter with the Beacon Hills High School Cafeteria. You will never forget to pack your own lunch again.”

“Can’t wait,” Kate sighed. The two of them walked a few feet without saying anything, which Kate suspected was a new thing for Stiles.

A suspicion largely proven when he blurted out, “So, are you seeing any – um, meeting anybody?” Kate tried her best not to grin, but when she glanced at him and saw his pale skin had gone bright red it was more than she could manage. “Oh sure,” he said when he noticed her smile, “laugh. Go ahead. If you were a nice person you’d offer to put me out of my misery.”

Kate began to giggle, and the more Stiles glared at her the worse it got until he was laughing too. When Scott, Kira and Lydia found them, the two of them had been reduced to the point of holding each other up while gasping for air.

“Okay, I gotta know what the joke was,” Kira said, smiling.

Now that they had an audience, Kate reluctantly started pulling herself under control. It had felt good to just laugh and be silly for a few moments, but it wasn’t anything that was going to help her complete her mission any faster. “Trust me,” she managed, her breath still coming in harsh gasps, “you had to be there.”

“No,” Stiles interjected, gesturing weakly at the crowd. “It was me. All me.”

“He tried to pick you up, didn’t he?” Scott asked. He was smiling too. In order to forestall answering, Kate turned to Lydia.

“We still doing this?”

The redhead drew a deep breath. “Small change of plans. We’re still going to get food and find a place outside. Then you’re going to tell all of us who the lost wolf is, and we’re going to tell you what you’ve walked into.”  
*********************************  
“Werewolves, Clint!”

As greetings went Kate had certainly presented him with stranger ones, but what confused Clint was her use of the plural. Setting aside his bow, he headed for the front of the house they’d rented. “Werewolves, Katie-Kate?”

He pulled up short on seeing that his partner wasn’t alone. “Werewolves,” a red-haired girl said matter-of-factly. “As in plural. More than one.”

Kate was wearing her ‘We are so going to talk,’ face. “Clint Barton, Lydia Martin and Scott McCall.” She threw her backpack on the couch. “I don’t suppose you got to the store?”

“I figured we’d go out tonight,” he said, still searching for any hint as to what was going on. “Worry about the groceries later.”

The red-head sighed, pulling out her phone. “I’ve got this. You two bring him up to speed.” Her green eyes ticked to Clint and he drew back reflexively before he could catch himself. “Any allergies?”

He shook his head. God, it was like someone had taken the most extreme parts of Kate and Natasha and made a new and terrifying breed of human. Even when she turned her back on them to make whatever call she had decided was necessary, Clint couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“Yo!” He flinched, the spell suddenly broken as Kate tugged on his sleeve. “We so need to talk.” Gesturing at the dining room, she headed in without waiting for him to respond. After another curious glance at the girl, Clint followed – the boy at his heels.

“All right,” Kate said, stopping at a point directly across the dining room table from him. “Once more - that’s Scott McCall, the girl is Lydia Martin, and did Cap tell you anything about the possibility of us running into a whole pack of werewolves?”

Clint shook his head. “Absolutely not. I would have remembered that, and I _definitely_ would have told you.”

“Werewolves,” Scott interjected, stressing the plural. “Enough for more than one pack in the area. Kitsune, a coyote, and Lydia’s a banshee.”

Groping for the nearest chair Clint half-sat, half-fell. “Which one are you?” he asked. “Fox or coyote?”

Kate took her own chair – Scott followed suit. “Scott’s an alpha werewolf. Leader of one of the local packs. You’re sure Cap never..?”

“Yes,” Clint snapped, more strident than he’d intended, but jeebus – how hard was it to give a guy a moment to wrap his brain around the idea of were _wolves_ being a thing? “So, do you _know_ Rahne Sinclair?” he asked, looking at Scott.

He’d startled the boy… _werewolf_ , his brain oh-so-helpfully reminded him. “Ms. Sinclair? Sure – she’s a math teacher at the school. I don’t have her, but Stiles and Lydia do.”

Clint glanced at Kate, who was giving him perfect “I know, right?” face at just that moment. “Thing is,” Scott went on, “she doesn’t read as a werewolf, and I’m getting pretty good at spotting those kinds of things.”

“If she was born a werewolf, you don’t have a lot of experience with those,” Lydia pointed out – entering the dining room and taking the final empty chair for herself. “Pizza and drinks will be here in the hour. I kept it simple.”

She glanced at Clint. “You’re Kate’s…uncle?”

“Clint and I work together,” Kate interjected, saving Clint from what was likely to be a spectacular verbal faux pas. “I told you that, Lydia – be nice.”

Lydia smiled, wrinkling her nose in a way that Clint _really_ hated himself for noticing. “I’m no good at nice. Ask anybody.”

Now _that_ , Clint believed.  
***********************************  
Tactically Clint thought faster on his feet than most anybody Kate had encountered since taking on her share of the Hawkeye mantle. Emotionally was a completely different matter altogether, and while she would have been lying to say that she didn’t enjoy throwing him in Lydia’s path at least at first, eventually Kate couldn’t help feeling sorry for him.

“Lydia, you called her the ‘lost wolf’ – where did you come up with that?” she asked, remembering an earlier comment.

To her surprise, Lydia actually looked embarrassed. “That’s what they called her. They told me you were ‘hunting the lost wolf’.”

“Banshee hear voices,” Clint said, nodding – and it was only dumb luck that kept Kate from doing the best double take this side of a Warner Brother’s cartoon hearing that bit of lore come tumbling out of his mouth. “Most of the time spirit voices, but sometimes other stuff. Faerie, sprites, elementals…”

Instead of saying anything, Kate tried to carry the evidence through to its logical conclusion. “Lost wolf means what…she’s hurt? She’s forgotten what she is?”

“Or she’s hiding from something or someone,” Clint added. “She’s never given you guys any hints that she knows there are more werewolves and stuff in town?”

“She’s a new teacher,” Lydia noted, while Scott shook his head.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say this isn’t something we can just randomly drop in her lap,” Kate said – praying that wasn’t going to be Clint’s next suggestion, because she was pretty sure Scott would act on it. _And if he doesn’t, Stiles will._

“I think we need to call Derek,” Scott said, glancing at Lydia. “We know somebody who was born a werewolf,” he elaborated. “He’s not as powerful as I am, but he knows a ton more about this stuff.”

Kate looked at Clint, who shrugged. “We’re so off script right now, I’ll buy anything.”

The doorbell chose that precise moment to ring. Lydia immediately hopped to her feet. “Food first – then Derek.”  
****************************************  
“You ready to go?”

Rahne looked up, smiling when she saw who had addressed her. Peter Hale, looking better in a casual v-neck and slacks than she was pretty sure she would ever look. “Our reservations are for six.”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” Stacking the last of her books neatly on her desk, she pushed to her feet with a soft groan and grabbed her bag. “Take me out of this madhouse” she laughed, going to Peter and half-collapsing into his waiting embrace. Catching her easily, Peter spun her until her back was against the wall. Rahne’s breath caught in her throat as he pressed against her and their eyes met.

“I am going to make you forget every stressful hour you spent in this place today,” he murmured, leaning in and kissing her. Rahne yielded to him immediately – she still didn’t understand why she responded so strongly to Peter on every level, but as long as he appeared to return her feelings so completely and enthusiastically, she couldn’t see what the harm.

Reaching down as he kissed her, she twined her fingers with his. “I’m absolutely going to hold you to that.”


End file.
